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Guest Post By Fancy Flours Employee Lindsey K.

Welcome to our first post in a series detailing all the wonderful things you can do with a Springerle mold! We’ll be jumping a little ahead in time by making Christmas ornaments, but you can use any design to decorate gifts or simply your home year round.

But what the heck is a Springerle mold? We’ll start with a brief history.

The most common form of pronunciation is spring-er-lee, however, the traditional form is shpring-er-luh. The molds were originally carved out of clay beginning as early as the 14th century in Germany, Bavaria, Switzerland and the Alsace area of France. Their biblical pictures were transferred to cookies and breads to educate those who couldn’t read or write. The molds soon changed to wood and metal mediums and the pictures came to represent everyday life – weddings, animals, holidays, etc. While generally used to mold dense, cake-like cookies, the molds have a number of uses in the crafting world.

We use molds from the wonderful crafters at House on the Hill. They’re made of a sturdy wood/resin composite and are casts of actual vintage designs. Check here for our full stock.

And now to the fun stuff! We’ll be casting our ornaments in Paperclay and Delight. Why these mediums instead of regular clay? They’re non-toxic! So you can feel safe using your mold for baking as well as crafting. This could even be a family project!

Materials:

Paperclay or Delight (Paperclay is clay-like and ivory while Delight is a foam-like texture and pure white)

1. Knead your molding medium into a solid mass (we used Paperclay for this tutorial). Make sure there are no layers or your cast won’t come out cleanly. It helps to roll the dough rather than fold it. If your Paperclay seems dry, you can add a Tablespoon or less of water until it reaches the consistency you desire.

Tip: If you want your dough all one color, knead in a couple drops of acrylic paint to your desired shade.

2. Dust your work surface and rolling pin with cornstarch. We laid down our Tovolo Pastry Prep Mat before dusting. This makes for easier cleanup and your molding medium won’t stick to the table. Roll out the Paperclay as you would cookie dough.

Tip: Consider the depth of your design. Don’t roll your Paperclay thinner than the deepest part or you will lose the top details!

3. Use a pastry brush (or large new paint brush) to dust cornstarch into the mold. In a pinch, you can drop the cornstarch into the mold with your fingers alone, but the brush makes for even dusting and keeps your hands clean. Be sure to dust the mold with cornstarch before every pressing!

4. Lay the mold onto the Paperclay and use even pressure to push all sides and the center into it. Again, consider your mold’s depth and press accordingly. This can take some practice, but if you don’t like the imprint simply ball the dough and begin again. It helps to press at table height rather than counter height.

Tip: Only want a piece of the design? Lay your mold face up and press the dough into the part that you wish to use. You can cut any excess with an exacto knife, spatula or dough cutter.

5. Lift the mold and cut out your design. If you have a cookie cutter to match your design, great! Otherwise an exacto knife, spatula or dough scraper will work just fine.

Tip: Only do one press at a time. If you do more than one, your dough will squish together and warp your design.

6. Press your lollipop stick or straw where you would like to tie the ribbon. Coffee stirrers create nice small, neat holes and can be found at office supply stores. You can cut away excess Paperclay before or after this step.

7. Use a spatula to remove your imprint and place on a mesh cooling rack to dry 12-24 hours.

Tip: After drying, you can smooth edges by sanding with a nail file or oval foam cushioned sanding pad.

8. If you’d like to paint your designs, now is the time! Acrylics work great. We chose to paint the Pine Cone design.

Tip: For an extra smooth finish, paint a thin layer of white and let dry before applying other colors.

9. Pull your ribbon through the designated hole, tie it and you’re done!

Guest Post by Fancy Flours Employee Lindsey G.

The creativity of people astounds me. How did the Wright brothers think to connect bicycles to creating an aircraft? Or how did the artist go about chiseling the Winged Victory statue? Or how did all these wonderful modern artists below create such unique items from something as simple as paper straws?

Yes, they’ve transformed these versatile little tubes into anything from cake pop sticks to light fixtures. The best part is they’ve created instructions to make it easy for you to take your straw game to the next level.

1. Cookies and Milk

Have your cookies and milk, too! Add an extra touch to this cute idea by cutting cookies in a shape to fit your theme. Then just stick the straw through! With over 900 cookie cutters on hand, Fancy Flours has something for every occasion. Our No-Fail Sugar Cookie recipe is great to use so cookies hold their shape.

2. Cupcake Toppers

Make personalized cupcake toppers with sprinkle packs. Because who doesn’t like to decorate their own cupcakes? With our large supply of sprinkles, you can mix and match to create a special pack for each person.

3. Placecards

Don’t let guests loose their place by setting out these adorable placecards. Stand straws in spools as shown, bottles, votives or anything else you have around the house. Try our washi tapes for back-to-school, Paris, general decorative and Christmas themes.

7. Confetti Sticks

Make homemade confetti sticks for your guests to shower you with at your wedding or for a party favor. We love the glitter details on the ends! Try neutral colors like gray or get creepy and crawly for Halloween with spiders. Fill with unique sprinkles for extra fun!

11. Paper Garland

12. Geometric Mobile

We’ve all seen the Himmeli art in stores lately. Traditionally, it’s a Finnish Christmas ornament made of straw, but it’s making its way into everyday décor. Now you can make your own for a tenth of the price! Start small with a bunting or go all out with this gorgeous mobile.

13. Easel Displays

14. Flameless Candles

These couldn’t be more simple for a quick and sophisticated addition to a birthday treat. This would be ideal for a 1st birthday party! Go pink, blue or neutral with yellow or green straws. Don’t forget the matching cupcake liners!

15. Cake Topper

Top your cakes with a little banner! This is a simple design for Halloween, but get creative and write on the little triangles or change up the colors. We have almost every color of straws, twine and little sugar decorations to add some pizzazz.

16. Photo Booth Props

Create some classy photo booth props using straws as sticks. Photo booths have become a big hit for weddings, with most vendors printing two of each photo. This leaves one as a favor for the guests and one to put in the guest book. Add speech bubbles and hats and you and your guests will have a wild time!

17. Wall Art

Make a sweet piece of art with nothing but a hot glue gun, straws and some ribbon. This artist chose a heart, but feel free to branch out! Try a star for New Year’s, an egg for Easter with our pastel collection or a wintery tree with our holiday set. Add a sweet note or saying with cardstock for a personal touch.

19. Cupid’s Arrows

20. Color Pop

I’ve found myself putting flowers in cute old glass bottles a lot lately. There’s just something homey and comfortable about the look. This idea is a perfect way to add some extra color! Just stick the stems in the straw and you’re done.

22. Mini Tiered Cake Stands

For those of you looking for something to wow, this mini tiered cake stand is certainly the way to go! Fill the “trays” with teenie tiny cookies like this artist, or use small candies for a quicker addition. Try our Fluted Round Cookie Cutter Set to make them as large or small as you like or taper with several sizes.

24. Wrap Bracelet

25. Fondue Sticks

Throw a fondue party and include a variety of fun straw colors so guests remember which is theirs! Fold and glue a paper flag at the end with names for more personalization. This artist used bananas for their toppings, but you can go savory with cheese or sweet with angel food cake or Rice Krispies.

Bonus:

I couldn’t resist this ad from Nestea because it is just amazing! As I said at the beginning, I think people are so creative and it’s wonderful that they can come up with complex creations like this. We’d love to see what you come up with. Comment your ideas and photos below or send us an email: info@fancyflours.com.

These molds are designed for making pressed cookies, springerle cookies or paper crafting projects. Besides baking cookies, you can form beautiful, edible, sweets using marzipan, fondant and modeling chocolate.

Crafters, artisans and scrap bookers will find infinite ways of creating cards, wall art, gift bags, ornaments, and charms with these molds. Beautiful as decorating accessories, the cookie molds can be hung on a wall, displayed on a plate rack or table top easel. Learn how to make some Springerle Mold crafts. Download our instruction sheets for free and enjoy!

House on the Hill Cookie Molds allow all of us to bake beautiful cookies that are reminiscent of family, history, tradition and culture. Many of the original molds are “presses,” now in museums and private collections, were carved in clay, wood or metal. Simpler Times Cookie Mold available HERE.

Create lovely cookies or wedding day crafts with these heirloom quality Monogram Cookie Molds, made of a resin/wood composite. Think fondant, petite fours, gift tags, cards and party favors! Each mold is 3.375” x 3.75” with monogram and scroll border.

Springerle Cookie Recipe from House on the Hill

These whisked-egg holiday cookies date back to at least the 1600’s and are made in Bavaria, Switzerland and the Alsace area of France. For eating quality, ease and quality of prints this recipe is just perfection!

Instructions:
Dissolve hartshorn in milk and set aside. Beat eggs till thick and lemon-colored (10-20 minutes). Slowly beat in the powdered sugar, then the softened butter. Add the hartshorn and milk, salt, preferred flavoring, and grated rind of lemon or orange, if desired. Gradually beat in as much flour as you can with the mixer, then stir in the remainder of the 2 lbs. of flour to make stiff dough. Turn onto floured surface and knead in enough flour to make a good print without sticking. Follow general directions for imprinting and drying cookies.

Bake on greased or baker’s parchment-lined cookie sheets at 255° to 325° till barely golden on the bottom, 10-15 minutes or more, depending on size of cookie.

Store in airtight containers or in zipper bags in the freezer. They keep for months, and improve with age. Yield 3 to 12 dozen.